The core objective of any quality training program is to create relevant and meaningful content that drives performance results and positive change for the learner and the organization. To achieve this, one must take into account company culture and employee profile. This is a critical consideration in today’s hospitality workplace which is a vibrant collage of - cultures, languages, experiences, beliefs and age groups. Unfortunately, the diversity we so value creates complexities and can prevent training programs from achieving their desired outcome. Our job as instructional designers is to accommodate all learner needs and acknowledge this diversity in the hospitality training programs we create. In this article we will explore how instructional designers can leverage the organization’s data about our diverse organizations to design more relevant and targeted training.

Obtain your Organization’s Data

The first step in tackling the challenge of diverse learning needs is to obtain an understanding of the learner requirements. It is essential that during the assessment phase of your project, instructional designers 'peel' back the layers on your training audience to understand their needs better.

Today’s organizations are data rich, collecting employee and technology data from many sources and making it available to various departments. The instructional designer that successfully evaluates and assembles this data can create a vivid picture of the organization’s learner landscape. Consider the data available in a typical IT department. End user computing and security teams would almost certainly have data pertaining to employee devices, browsers, and wireless access at learner locations. This useful information allows your ID to leverage existing technology, determine optimal learning modalities and implement effective design techniques. Human Resources will likely be able to provide learner location, language and job level among many other employee attributes, thereby providing key information that could influence translation costs, accessibility to training content and desired training topics.

The designer needs only to assemble this data to paint a picture of the learner population. Let’s now take a look at how that would be accomplished.

Create a Matrix

After obtaining learner related data, begin assembling it into a matrix. Choose a primary attribute and compare that against the other attributes and capabilities. For example, take Job Role and compare against computing device, location and language. Use spreadsheets and pivot table analysis to filter and summarize the data.

The output should look something like the table below. Notice we have placed the role on the y-axis and learner attribute on the x-axis.

Where x and y intersect, we show the counts of learners meeting that criteria. Use of a spreadsheet and pivot table analysis will make this task much easier.

Analyze the Matrix

Once you have created your matrix, take a look at the data and volume counts and begin to develop some core and outlier requirements for this online program. In our matrix example a few things stand out:

2. First language of this training population is predominately the local language.

3. In comparison with the total population, the number of learners with an advanced degree is about half.

As a response to finding #1 noted above, the designer would absolutely need to consider designing for mobile. In finding #2, voice overs and on screen text would need to be in the local language and could impact on screen text and voiceovers. For finding #3, the matrix shows that there are large portions of both manager and non-managers who have advanced degrees.

A savvy Instructional Designer can take the analysis further to determine mobile device type, types of languages and degree levels of the manager/non-manager bases. This more detailed assessment and review will help further refine the training and, based on the above, allows the designer to confidently design a mobile program in the local language. Perhaps the training should be offered in manager and non-manager versions. In instances where there are large percentages of foreign languages spoken, a specific language matrix can help prioritize which languages are most widely spoken and would be in scope for translation.Delivering the Online Training

For the eLearning program outlined in our example above, the instructional designer can use the matrix to create segments of learners. Building segmentations can be a great tool in determining how best to deliver and deploy the training. The segment analysis of this data shows an array of learner device and PC access. We also know that there are various job roles in the learner population. Finally we also know the HR data can show the number of learners in certain regions or locations.

With this information at hand, the instructional designer can work with the LMS team, training managers and regional staff to deploy the online training in a targeted and deliberate fashion. For example, designers might use this information to deploy to the segments of:

Managers only

Non-Managers only

Back office staff

Mobile devices users

PC users

Location

Language

Designers could use this data to deploy to managers first so they can take the training prior to their staff to encourage top-down support. Perhaps the operations teams want to avoid training deployments to back office staff during quarter end or year end activities. Knowing which learners have only PC’s or mobile devices can help the deployment team target instances where a learner should receive the Flash or HTML5 version of the training.

Segmentation of the learner population can be a powerful tool in the reporting and analytics for any hospitality training program. We will follow up in a later post and explore that in greater detail.

CONCLUSION:

This method of identifying smaller, homogenized groups, from a larger and potentially highly diverse learner population is highly valued by designers hoping to tailor the learning to the target audience or control the rate and reach of how hospitality training is deployed. While this does represent some additional effort, the time spent at the beginning of a training project can help designers deliver training with an exceptional understanding of their learner environment, thereby positively impact the take rate and application of knowledge learned.

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